Matt Kenseth won 24 career races with Roush Fenway Racing. It took him just three races to win his first with Joe Gibbs Racing.

On his 41st birthday, Kenseth held off Kasey Kahne to win the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for his first win since moving to Gibbs during the offseason.

Kenseth, the 2003 Cup champion, drove for Roush for 13 years, winning 24 races, including two at Las Vegas, where Roush has dominated over the years. But in a race dominated by Gibbs and powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports, Kenseth held off Hendrick's Kahne for the win.

"This is awesome," an emotional Kenseth said in victory lane. "I just want to thank the Lord for this opportunity. I just knew it. I felt really good about this group and I really feel like this is just the beginning."

Kenseth had the dominant car in the season-opening Daytona 500 in his first race with Gibbs, but the engine in his Toyota blew, costing him a chance to win his third Daytona 500. He finished seventh last week at Phoenix.

Kenseth wasn't dominant at Las Vegas, but hung around the top five all day and then came on strong at the end, leading the final 42 laps.

He took the lead by taking no tires on a pit stop with 42 laps remaining and then held off a dominant Kahne.

Despite being on old tires, Kenseth held onto the lead on two late restarts and then held off Kahne, who had dominated the race, over the final 25 laps.

Kahne, who had gotten off to a slow start this season, finished second followed by Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Kahne led a race-high 114 laps and consistently ran down the leader to regain the lead. But he could not catch Kenseth despite repeated attempts over the final 25 laps.

"I had an unbelievable car throughout the race," Kahne said. "I drove so hard every single lap out there. I had the car to beat and lost."

Kenseth was surprised he was able to hold off Kahne.

"I was real nervous all day," he said. "(Kahne) had the fastest car. ... I didn't have the fastest car at the end but had it where we needed to be. It was great pit stops, great pit strategy and we were in the right place at the right time, and we took advantage of it."

Busch, Kenseth's teammate, had the only car that could run with Kahne most of the race. He made some wild moves to take the lead on restarts and led 27 laps after rallying from an early speeding penalty, but could not keep up with Kenseth and Kahne on the final run. He wound up battling Keselowski for third.

"I wish we had had a little more at the end and wish we had a little more long-run speed. We've got some work to do," Busch said. "But it's good to see the 20 in victory lane for the first time."

Johnson, who finished sixth, maintained the early points lead over Keselowski, followed by Earnhardt, Denny Hamlin, Edwards, Mark Martin and Kenseth. Martin, who is running only a part-time schedule, will miss next week's race at Bristol.

Kahne took the lead from polesitter Keselowski early in the race, and he and Hendrick teammate Jimmie Johnson dominated the first half of the race. Kahne and Johnson combined to lead 180 of 267 laps.

Johnson and Kahne held the lead on a restart on Lap 165 when Busch made a wild, three-wide move, going to the apron of the track to blast by Kahne and charge into the lead.

Hamlin, a teammate with Kenseth and Busch at Gibbs, also was running in the top 10 when he got a penalty for speeding on pit road on Lap 119. Hamlin had been in the center of controversy all week after being fined $25,000 for criticizing NASCAR’s new Sprint Cup car. He wound finishing 15th.

Among the drivers who struggled was Danica Patrick. She started 37th and fell two laps down early in the race and then was penalized for a tire being outside her pit box during a pit stop. She finished 33rd, six laps down.

The race was the first race on a 1.5-mile track with NASCAR's new Gen-6 car. The race was more competitive than last week's race at Phoenix, with 22 lead changes among eight different drivers.

The car became the focus this week because of the comments by Hamlin, who said it was difficult to pass and said the car was no better than the old model.